I know exactly how you feel about being embarrassed by your ranking. When I reach Saint (in about 2021 at this rate), I still won't feel like I'm qualified to write a book.

On the other hand, I remember your name because of the number of times I've upvoted you. Not because "hey, it's bradcathey, I need to ++ him", but because you've either had a good simple solution to a problem or you gave an insightful answer to someone's question. Or maybe you just asked a question that started a really interesting conversation.

My point here is that, like everything else Perl-related, there is more than one way to reach Sainthood. You can have three posts rated 1,000 each, or 5,000 posts that each got one courtesy vote. And none of it matters as soon as you log out of PM. My boss doesn't care whether I'm an Initiate or a Bishop; what impresses him is that my servers stay up with few or no problems. I don't respect you because you're a Saint. I upvoted you (and indirectly helped make you a Saint) because you have contributed in a positive way to my overall Perl experience.

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Re^2: XP, page ranking, sponsored links and the fortune of PM

Thank you for your kind words. And as I neared sainthood, I was lamenting my lack of worthiness, and Aristotle made some comforting points.

It's a community, as crazy as it sometimes seems, and I guess if you contribute at all to the "good of the order," that's worth something. And I must admit, I have learned a lot from simply reading good questions (and their answers).

Looks like you need to spend more time in the pool been42. I'd love to see more questions from you. Jump in. Thanks again.

—Brad"Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up." G. K. Chesterton

When putting a smiley right before a closing parenthesis, do you:

Use two parentheses: (Like this: :) )
Use one parenthesis: (Like this: :)
Reverse direction of the smiley: (Like this: (: )
Use angle/square brackets instead of parentheses
Use C-style commenting to set the smiley off from the closing parenthesis
Make the smiley a dunce: (:>
I disapprove of emoticons
Other